Web International Advanced Private Class Lesson 1&2

Advanced Private Class

Lesson 1
Life Choices (Review)

Goals of the lesson

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Objective 1: To understand and express different degrees of logical connection between events in the past,
present, and future, using the modals (would, could, might, will, may, etc.), and logical
connectives such as: as a result, even though, and unless.

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Objective 2: To understand and express contrary-to-fact conditionals –e.g. what could have happened in
the past (but didn’t).

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Objective 3: To understand and express conditional predictions with different degrees of certainty and
reality, such as: will and would, if and unless.

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Classroom Activities
I. Warm-up
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Self-introduction and asking questions like: “If I hadn’t chosen to study English, what would I have done?”
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Use plenty of “If…” questions and get them to work in pairs, asking each other 4 questions each, then
report back to the class.

II. Review Activities

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Activity 1: Cause and Result

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Objective: To understand the logical connection between two events, using logical connectives such as
because, because of, as a result.
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Ask students to list three connected events in Harry’s life, and then in Joan’s life. Is one event the cause of
the other? If yes, ask students to indicate which event is the cause of the other. For example:
Harry can’t walk because he was injured.
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Harry was able to work as a translator because he was fluent in five languages.
The agency she was working for was bought by another company. As a result, her job was eliminated.
She wasn’t sure whether she should take the job or not because of the low pay.
Focus on Harry and Joan. Help students to become familiar with different ways to connect events. Some
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events are casually linked, and other events are linked only in a time sequence.

Activity 2: Speculation and Facts

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Objective: Students should be able to understand and express themselves using the following two
conditional structures:

Focus on Harry and Joan. Ask students to speculate what happened to Harry and Joan and what could have
happened in the past (but didn’t). Students shouldn’t confuse contrary-to-fact speculations with factual
statements. For example:
Harry was injured in a car accident. He has to use a wheelchair now.
If he had not been injured, he wouldn’t have had to use a wheelchair.

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Activity 3: What should Joe do?

Objective: Focus on the different conditionals used to express likely and unlikely assumptions.

Ask students to summarize difficulties Joe has met, and to give Joe suggestions. They could even work in
pairs to come up with a plan if there are 4 students.

Activity 4: Are you sure?

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Objective: Focus on degrees of certainty and necessary conditions for something to happen in the future,
for example, the use of will and would, if and unless.

Ask students to summarize Sandra’s conditions and predict (again in pairs if desired) the future sequences

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of selling and not selling her company. Ask students to present what they would do if they were in Sandra’s
position. They should also explain all the consequences of their actions.

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III. Wind down
Ask them what they would do “if” something happened. You could prompt them with: “If it rains

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tomorrow…”, “If Sars returns to China…”, “If you won the lottery…”, “If you got had only one day to
live…”

IV. Homework Assignments al

1. Ask students to use conditionals to speculate and write on what they will do next weekend and far into
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the future. They should write at least 3 for each.
2. Have students write down things they didn’t do, but wish they had – and to give reasons. Each student
should write at least 5 things.
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For example:
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I wish I had studied English more seriously. If I had, I might have gotten a better job.
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Web International Advanced Private Class Lesson 1&2

Advanced Private Class

Lesson 2
Life Choices (Extension)

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Goals of the lesson
 To be able to speculate about or predict the consequences of a series of events.

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 To be able to explain why and how an event in the past, present, or future leads to the future.
 To contrast factual, imaginary and predicted outcomes of an event.

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 To be able to make predictions with different degrees of certainty.

Classroom Activities

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I. Warm-up

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Have students talk about what the weather prediction was for today and what it really is. Has this affected their
plans in any way? If they haven’t listened to the weather report or this fails to generate much conversation get
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them to talk about places they have been where there was some unusual weather.

II. Homework Check

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1. Report on what students will do next weekend or far into the future.

2. Have students report on the things they didn’t do, but wish they had – and the reasons.
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For example:
I wish I had studied English more seriously. If I had, I might have gotten a better job.
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III. Extension Activities

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Activity 1: Life events

Objective: Students will be able to express their life events with logical sequence.
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Present a series of past events in your (or someone else’s) life, where one event led to another.
Example 1: Parents got a new job --> We moved to another city --> I changed schools and met new friends.
Example 2: Watched the Olympics --> Became interested in skiing --> Started skiing --> Won the national
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championship.

In the above series of events, explain how the events were connected and how strongly they were
connected.

Example 3: Even if my parents hadn’t gotten a new job, we might still have moved to another city.
Example 4: She might have become interested in skiing even without watching the Olympics. She couldn’t’
have won the national championship without knowing how to ski.

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Activity 2: Three Wishes

Objective: conditionals on possible future events

Ask students to ask each other in pairs the question: “If you had three wishes, what would they be, and why?”
and then have a discussion. Report back with their partner’s answers.

Activity 3: Research Assignment

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Objective: conditionals on past events and reasoning logics

Choose a historical figure and focus on an important decision they made that affected you or your country.

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Explain why you agree or disagree with their decision. NB: naturally be a little careful as to the thorny area of
Chinese politics.

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Activity 4: Complete Sentences

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Objective: Talking about self.

Ask students to complete each of the following sentences, and then explain.
a: “One of the best decisions I ever made was when I…”

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b: “One of the most difficult choices I’ll have to make in the future is…”
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IV. Wind down
Ask students if they know who Nostradamus is? Ask them if there is a similar famous person in China. Have
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them give their own predictions for the future.
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Web International Advanced Private Class Lesson 1&2

Teachers’ Reference
This lesson is related to Life Choices, [New Dynamic English Level 4, Disc 1, Unit 1]

I. Introduction of the Lesson

Harry’s Accident; Joan’s Challenge; Joe’s Café; and Sandra’s Dilemma

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This Unit focuses on decisions and their consequences, both real and imaginary. In Harry’s Accident, Joan’s
Challenge, Joe’s Caféand Sandra’s Dilemma the language models are presented with comprehension checks.

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When these four lessons are completed, students should do the Question Practice lesson, which uses Speech
Recognition; and then the Focus on Conditionals lesson, which gives students practice constructing

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conditionals which follow from a set of facts.

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II. Learning Points
Conditional, likely/unlikely

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If + subj. + V  real prediction; If + subj. + V(d)  unlikely speculation
If she sells/sold the company, the new owners will/would control it.
If he is/were lucky, he might make enough to retire.
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If Sandra refuses/refused their offer, the other company will/would compete against her. If they
complete/completed against her, she will/would have to work harder.
If they decide/decided to, they could even let her go.
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Conditional, unreal/imaginary
If the subj. + V(d)  speculation; If +subj. + had +V(n)  speculation
Had +subj. V(n)  speculation
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If you were Sandra, what would you do?

If they didn’t like the way she runs the company, they wouldn’t want her to stay.
If the car hadn’t been going too fast, it wouldn’t have gone out of control.
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If Joe’s prices had been lower, he might not have lost so much business.
Joe’s business might have survived had the factor not had to lay off workers.
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Have to / compulsion (have to, let happen)

He has to use a wheelchair. She had to pay for food and rent. The factory had to lay off workers. If they
compete against her, she’ll have to work harder. She can sell the company and let them control it. She’s sure
they would force her to make changes. Since then, he has to use a wheelchair.
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Logical relations (as a result, because of, even though, in spite of, instead of, since, unless)
Since Joan was looking for a challenge, she decided to apply. In spite of his injury, Harry has gone ahead with
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life. As a result of the accident, Harry almost died. Unless she agrees to stay on, they won’t buy her business.

Modals with past real meaning (would, could)

When he was a young man, he could run very fast. Instead of thinking about the things he couldn’t do, he
focused on what he could do. She wanted a job that would be challenging. She was confident that she would do
well.

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Passives with modals (will be forced to close, wouldn’t have been injured)
If he hadn’t been running near a road, he wouldn’t have been hit by a car.

Passives (was hit by a car, was bought, had been offered, were paid)
He has to use a wheelchair because he was injured in an accident. What happened to the travel agency? It was
bought by another company.

Past habitual used to

Harry used to be a runner. Joan used to work at a travel agency. What happened to the travel agency where she

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used to work? Where did Joan use to work?

III. Transcript

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Harry’s Accident

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Harry used to be a runner. Then, one day while running alongside a road, he was hit by a car. The car was
going too fast and had gone out of control. As a result of the accident, Harry almost died from a serious injury.

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Since then, he hasn’t been able to walk, and he has had to use a wheelchair.
In spite of his injury, Harry hasn’t let it stop him from going ahead with his life. After his injury, instead of
thinking about all the things he couldn’t do, he focused on what he could do. He realized that there are many

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interesting possibilities for someone who can’t walk.
One of the things he became interested in was foreign languages. Everyday he listened to tapes and read books,
and he found he was very good at learning languages. After several years he became fluent in five languages.
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Then he started working as a translator.
Now he works full time for a translation company. He and a group of friends are even thinking of starting their
own company.
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Though Harry wishes he could walk, he is looking forward to the future. Sometimes, when looking back on his
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life, he wonders what might have happened had he not been injured. He misses being able to walk or run. But
at least he is able to live on his own and do things that he enjoys. He thinks there is much to be thankful for.
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Joan’s Challenge
Joan used to work at a travel agency. She helped
people plan trips and arranged for their hotels and transportation. She worked there for several years and was
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promoted several times for her hard work.

Unfortunately, the agency she was working for was bought by another company. As a result, her job was
eliminated.
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At first she was depressed. She had to pay for food and rent, but she had no money coming in.
She needed a job, but not just any job. She wanted a job that would be challenging.
After applying for several jobs, she saw an ad in the newspaper. The ad was for a job at a small health food
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company. The pay wasn’t very good, but it looked like a company with a promising future. Since Joan was
looking for a challenge, she decided to apply.

Within a week she had been offered the job. She wasn’t sure whether she should take it or not because of the
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low salary. A friend advised her to take a higher paying job with a larger company.
But Joan liked the idea of working her way up in a small company. She was confident that she would do well
and that she could help it grow. Its products were good, and there was increasing interest in health foods.
Now, after much hard work, she’s a vice-president at Ace Health. Since she joined the company, it has more
than doubled in size. Joan looks forward to each day and feels proud of her accomplishments.
She’s glad she made the decision she did.
If she hadn’t taken a chance, she thinks things wouldn’t have turned out the way they have.

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Joe’s Café
Joe used to run a little coffee shop. Business was good and his shop was busy because it was near a factory.
The factory workers often came there for coffee and something to eat.
Then two things happened. First, another coffee shop opened across the street. This hurt Joe’s business because
some of his customers went to the other shop. The other coffee shop’s prices were lower because its workers
were paid less.
Second, and more serious, the factory began to lay off workers. It was forced to reduce its operations because
of its high levels of pollution.
It wasn’t long before the number of customers had dropped by more than half. At that point, Joe was forced to

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close the business he had run for twenty years. Now he’s trying to decide what to do next.
One possibility he is considering is to open up another shop in another place. Another choice is to take a
friend’s advice and invest all of his money in the stock market. If he’s lucky, he might make enough to retire.

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On the other hand, if his investments were to fail, he could lose everything. He’s not sure if he should take the
risk.

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Sandra’s Dilemma
Sandra has her own business, a small printing company. She started it more than ten years ago.
It’s a growing business, and her clients are happy with her work. She prints posters, brochures and books. She

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enjoys her work, and she takes pride in what she has accomplished. Now another company has offered her a lot
of money to buy her business. They even want her to stay on and work for them. In fact, if she won’t stay on
for at least a year, they won’t buy her business. They like the way she runs her business.

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On the other hand, they would like to cut costs and make the business even more profitable. She’s sure they
would force her to make changes.
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Sandra has a choice. She can sell the company and let them control it. Or she can keep the business and run it
herself.
If she sells the company, she worries what might happen to her employees. She doesn’t want to sell unless she
knows her employees can keep their jobs.
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If she refuses their offer, the other company will compete against her. They will open a new printing company
nearby. If they compete against her, she’ll have to work harder. There’s even a chance her company will fail
and be forced to close. On the other hand, she will be her own boss.
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She also has many loyal customers who are pleased with the quality of her work.
If Sandra accepts their offer, the other company will pay her a high salary. She will also have a ten percent
share of the larger company. On the other hand, if they own the company, they will make the big decisions. If
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they decide to, they could even let her go. They could also decide to lay off some of her employees.
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If you were Sandra, what would you do?

She is probably going to refuse their offer. She enjoys running the business, and she wants to see how well she
can do. Unless she keeps the business, she’ll never know what she could have done on her own. If she sold the
business, she would never know what she could have done on her own. She would also feel bad if her
employees lost their jobs.
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If you were one of Sandra’s employees, what would you advise her to do?

Question Summary
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What did Harry used to be? What wouldn’t have happened had he not been running near a road?
What happened while he was running near a road? Why did the car go out of control? Why can’t
Harry walk? Why does Harry have to use a wheelchair? How long has Harry been unable to walk? What did
Harry focus on after his injury?
Because of his injury, what could Harry have done? What did he realize? What is something he found he could
do? What is one reason he could become a translator? What couldn’t he have done if he hadn’t studied foreign
languages? What does Harry miss being able to do? What is something Harry can be thankful for?

Where did Joan use to work? Why did Joan lose her job? Why was Joan’s job eliminated? What happened to

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the travel agency where she used to work? Why was she depressed? What kind of job did she want? How did
she find out about the job at the health food company? What job was being advertised? Why did she apply for
the job? Why wasn’t she sure if she should take the job?

Who used to come to Joe’s for coffee and something to eat? Would business have been as good if there hadn’t
been a factory nearby? How did the other coffee shop hurt Joe’s business?
How did the other coffee shop’s prices compare to Joe’s? Why did the factory have to begin laying off workers?
What advice would you give to Joe? Why shouldn’t he invest all his money in the stock market? What is he
trying to decide? Besides investing in the stock market, what is he considering? Why can’t he retire right now?

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What would happen if he invested in the stock market and stock prices went down?

Who owns a small printing company? Why does the other company want her to stay? If she sells

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the company, who will control it? Who will run the company if she refuses to sell it? What might happen if she
refuses to sell? If Sandra sells her company, who will make the big decisions?

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Fact/Conditional Summary
He was hit by a car while running alongside a road.
If he hadn’t been running near a road he wouldn’t have been hit by a car.

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It went out of control because it was going too fast.
If the car hadn’t been going too fast, it wouldn’t have gone out of control.
He can’t walk because he was injured in an accident.

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If he hadn’t been injured, he could walk.
He has to use a wheelchair because he was injured in an accident.
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He wouldn’t have to use a wheelchair if he hadn’t been injured.
He learned a foreign language. As a result, he became a translator.
He couldn’t have become a translator if he hadn’t learned a foreign language.
She lost her job because the agency she worked
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for was bought by another company.
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She wouldn’t have lost her job if the agency

hadn’t been bought by another company.
Her job was eliminated because another company
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bought the agency.

Her job wouldn’t have been eliminated had
another company not bought the agency.
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She was depressed because she had lost her job.

She wouldn’t have been depressed had she not
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lost her job.

Since Joan was looking for a challenge, she
decided to apply.
If she hadn’t been looking for a challenge, she
wouldn’t have decided to apply.
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She applied for the job because she wanted a

challenge.
If she hadn’t wanted a challenge, she wouldn’t
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have applied for the job.

Since she joined the company, it has more than
doubled in size.
If she hadn’t joined the company, it might not
have doubled in size.
Joe’s shop was doing well until the other coffee
shop opened.
If the other coffee shop hadn’t opened, Joe’s
coffee shop might still be doing well.

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He was losing money, so he had to close his shop.

If he hadn’t been losing money, he wouldn’t
have had to close his shop.
He doesn’t have enough money, so he can’t retire.
If he had enough money, he could retire.
He won’t lose money unless the stock market goes down.
He’ll lose money if stock prices go down.
Her business is growing because she’s doing a
good job.

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Her business wouldn’t be growing if she weren’t
doing a good job.
Her business wouldn’t be growing unless her

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clients were happy.
Her business wouldn’t be growing if her clients

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weren’t happy.
Her business is growing because her clients are
happy.
If her clients weren’t happy her business wouldn’t grow.

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They like the way Sandra runs the company, so
they want her to stay.
If they didn’t like the way she runs the company,

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they wouldn’t want her to stay.
They won’t buy her company unless she agrees to stay.
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If she doesn’t agree to stay, they won’t buy her
company.
The other company won’t compete against her
unless she refuses to sell.
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If she refuses to sell, the other company will
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compete against her

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